CLEVELAND — What a great way to end an invaluable day.
Hundreds gathered at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on this World Mental Health Day for a multi-school district mental health and safety summit, hosted by the Kevin Love Fund. The kids and teachers in attendance from across Greater Cleveland had no idea Kevin Love would be coming out to talk to them, but the Cavaliers star spent about 15 minutes going over how he wished he knew what they were learning when he was their age.
The Kevin Love Fund started four years ago with a goal of reaching a billion people in five years. Love's original Players' Tribune essay has been shared thousands of times, but it didn't stop there: He talks about mental health just like he would a sprained ankle or fractured hand.
It's an issue that needs to be an open part of our lives, and Love's advocacy of sharing free curriculum with schools is his wave of making an even larger ripple effect. In an exclusive interview with 3News, Monica Robins spoke to Love about his ongoing efforts and the importance of events like this.
"Everybody's going through something that we can't see," he said. "I've mentioned that so many times, but I truly believe it. It might not be you in the first-person, but somebody within arm's distance is going through something."
Monica asked Kevin about his own daily routine and how we could all learn from it, and of course, he mentioned his dog Vestry. She keeps him grounded and focused, along with his diet, sleep, exercise, and meditation.
But perhaps the most important lesson of today is giving kids the OK to just talk about their emotions and they learned healthy ways to express themselves. Love grew up at a time where his dad — former NBA player Stan Love — pushed him to toughen up and deal with it, but by the time he hit middle school, his mental health started to be affected.
"I wish I had the presence of mind to kind of understand what I was feeling, what I was going through," he recalled of his younger days, even back to college at UCLA or his early years as a professional. "I'd go back and be a better leader, and I know that some people looked up to me. I would have looked to impact lives in a better way at an earlier age."
He's not alone: Most kids go years before they're diagnosed, because it's not something we frequently talk about. Kevin says changing that starts at home.
"Kids should be allowed to be vulnerable, and I think it's a new age of being able to open up and be stronger because of it," Love explained, noting how he hopes he and his wife Kate can foster such an environment when they have kids one day.
One in five Americans have anxiety disorders according to the National Alliance of Mental Health. The pandemic left one in three people dealing with anxiety or depression, not to mention the staggering numbers of people who turned or returned to substance use disorder.
That's why the curriculum at today's summit was so invaluable, and organizers say they have every intention of making this an annual event.
"Changing one person's life can change the entire community," Love said.